Bightmares

Chapter Sixteen

There wasn’t much else for the three DSMC crews to do. With the Braynow Gaston crew now complete at four after Emi chipped and synced Sophie to her new ship and crew with Graymard’s approval, the ships headed out. Rob officially turned custody of the Petrovis Skye over to the captain of the Forrester Cross, and the three DSMC vessels once again linked together via tractor beam for the return trip to Mars.

Emi still wasn’t fond of entering jump mode and didn’t look forward to the process, remembering how it made her feel before and put her nerves on edge.

Aaron sat in his command chair, hooked an arm around Emi’s waist, and pulled her to him. “What do you want to do when we get back? Graymard said we’ve got a few days off coming after this bullshit.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. We definitely need to do something for Donna and her guys. Oh, can we go see Mom and Dad again, too?”

Caph laughed. “If we visited Mars and didn’t see them and they found out, they’d have our hides. Believe me.”

When she went to the galley to fix dinner, Emi realized she needed some fresh greens for their salad. That meant a trip down to the hydroponics lab.

Emi hadn’t spent nearly as much time here as she’d have liked to over the past few weeks. Ford and Caph helped out when they could, but she needed to do some serious sprucing up during their return to Mars. She grabbed a colander. After a moment of hunting, she finally found her kitchen shears, which Caph had put in the wrong drawer, again. Those she slipped into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt.

Being underway, the men had turned down the temperature in most of the ship to conserve energy. As she approached the hydro lab, a weird feeling settled over her that she couldn’t place. She sensed her men still up on the bridge. Everything appeared to be normal. None of them seemed stressed beyond normal duties.

Shaking it off as nerves because of the jump engine influence, she walked into the hydro lab. Not too much damage done, fortunately. Poor Ford had a black thumb, but even he hadn’t been able to kill off her hardy plants. She spent a few minutes pruning back some of the leggier ones and then started gathering what she needed for the salad. She loved the hydro lab, it was her escape, her haven. She could think about her childhood in Montana before her parents took the moon job.

She quickly ended that line of thinking. After the past stressful days, the last thing she needed was more stress or sad memories.

With a full colander, she returned the shears to her front pocket when the lights went out in the hydro lab. Not just the ceiling lights, but the grow lights as well, plunging the large room into total darkness.

She’d been near the far wall and spotted the com link button’s pale red glow. Easing over to it, she punched it. “Aaron?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“What’s up with the hydro lab lights?”

“What?”

A shiver ran up her spine. “I’m sitting down here in the dark. They all went out.”

His voice turned serious. “Hold on.” A moment later, he said, “Em, wait right there. I’ll come take a look at it. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Regardless of what his words said, his tone spoke otherwise. A sharp, edgy current ran through his voice, worrying her. “Okay.”

Something felt wrong, but what? What couldn’t he say over the com link that had him sounding like he was about to rip someone’s head off?

Quietly, she pressed her back against the wall and slowly slid down it. After setting the colander on the floor, she silently moved to her left, to the far corner of the hydro lab, until she knew she had reached one of the large hydro tables.

That’s when she felt it, the other presence. Not Aaron, he was still on his way from the bridge—at a full run, she realized—but someone…

Eckhart.

Holding her breath, she tried to track his presence through the room. He stood by the door, had probably sabotaged the lights in the decontamination chamber people had to cross through to enter and leave the lab. The inner door was silent. No wonder she’d never heard him.

She slid on her belly under the table. The next three had enough clearance she could slip under them as well. The five after that were too deep, had bases without enough room to hide under.

Eckhart worked his way to the back of the lab down the main corridor. Emi froze behind another table as she felt him pass on the other end. He was working blind, quietly feeling his way, but acting like he’d memorized the lab’s layout.

Emi’s heart chilled. He probably had. The last cargo lander had been brought aboard two days earlier. They hadn’t left the ship since. That meant he’d been on board at least two days, probably hiding in the massive cargo bay.

She gathered her feet under her. No telling what kind of weapon he had, but she knew he had one and he planned to use it.

He reached the far end of the room by the time she neared the decon chamber door. That’s when he tripped on the colander and sent it skittering across the floor, swearing as he did.

Emi felt the kitchen shears in her front pocket digging into her stomach. She grabbed them, holding them like a dagger. Fighting the rage coursing through her, she kept her steps light.

“Where are you, Doctor?” he muttered. “I want to talk to you.”

Sweat broke out on her skin despite the cool temperature. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to kill. She suppressed a gasp when he opened fire into the ceiling with an energy rifle, briefly illuminating the lab. She’d been ducked down behind a table, and he didn’t spot her.

“If you don’t talk to me, Doctor, I will kill your men anyway. After I kill you, of course.”

Emi fought the urge to yell at him. Then, horror-struck, she realized Aaron had reached the hydro lab deck. He’d be there in less than thirty seconds.

She reached out and felt the tomato plants on the table by her. Carefully, she pulled two of the large, still-green fruits off their vines. After working her way to the doorway, she lobbed one as hard as she could toward the back of the room and hit the button to open the decon chamber door.

He heard her and screamed her name as she lobbed the second fruit at him. It fell short and splattered on the deck. In the darkness, he slipped and fell in the mess as he fired off another round from the energy rifle.

She shrank against the far wall of the decon chamber. The outer door wouldn’t open until the inner door had completely closed and the decon cycle completed. In the meantime, she was trapped.

Eckhart slammed against the inner door, throwing his body against it but not budging it as he screamed at her from the other side. Emi heard Aaron pounding on the outer door, screaming for her. Then Eckhart fired again, apparently hitting the control panel inside because the decon cycle stopped.

The outer door wouldn’t open.

Aaron’s voice rang through the ship. “Ford, Caph, emergency! Get your asses to the hydro lab right fucking now! Bring weapons!”

Eckhart’s maniacal laughing scared Emi even more than the weapon he fired at the door again. “Nowhere to run, Doctor Hypatia,” he screamed at her. “I’ll get to you before they do!” He hit the door again. This time, in the dim light from the decon cycle display panel, she saw he’d managed to pry open a small gap in the door.

She shrank against the far side. As one of his hands emerged through the opening, trying to gain purchase on the door panel, she remembered the shears in her hand. With a scream of her own, she reached out and slashed at him, nearly taking off one of his fingers.

He pulled his hand back, roaring, enraged. “You fucking bitch! You’re going to pay for that!” He stuck the barrel of the energy rifle into the opening and fired, but the shot harmlessly hit the outer door.

Afraid the outer door would open and one of her men would be hit, she grabbed the barrel and yanked it into the chamber, knocking Eckhart off balance. She wouldn’t let go and pointed it toward the ceiling. He tried to pull it back, and she jammed it backward, again startling him. Apparently she hit him in the face when she did, because she felt and heard bone crunch, followed by a pained yell.

She yanked the energy rifle toward her again. This time she got it all the way into the chamber. That’s when the outer door opened a little as Aaron pried on it. She jumped to help, wrapping her fingers around the edge to pull, when Eckhart yelled again.

“I’m gonna kill you!”

Enraged, Emi grabbed the energy rifle, turned, and fired through the small gap in the inner doorway. She aimed low, but apparently he’d ducked. She heard the sickening thud of him hitting the deck. When she checked the setting, she realized he’d had it on the highest setting.

Lethal.

Aaron and Caph pried the door open wide enough to pull Emi out. She sobbed and fell into their arms as Ford took the rifle from her. “I shot him!” she cried. “I think he’s dead, but don’t take any chances!”

Ford handed her off to Aaron, and with Caph’s help, he overrode the lights and decon chamber controls.

Eckhart lay on the hydro lab floor. With half his face missing, there was no question as to his condition. Aaron cupped Emi’s chin in his hands. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. “He didn’t hurt me.”

He pulled her tightly against him, crushing her against his chest. She felt his heart racing, his jumbled emotions finally settling as she wrapped her arms around him and held on.

“Get him out of there,” Aaron hoarsely said. “We have a couple of body cases in cargo.”

“We can’t eject him while in a jump,” Ford softly reminded him.

“I know. Seal him up in it, then lock it in the small life pod. We’ll dump him with the authorities on Mars.”

Emi closed her eyes and didn’t look as Ford and Caph carried the man’s body away.

Aaron scooped her into his arms and carried her to their cabin and into the head. There, he stripped her, and they engaged in a short real water shower. He soaped her body, never letting go of her, kissing her.

“Jesus, I thought he’d got you,” he hoarsely said.

Ford and Caph soon joined them. Together they stood, the men tightly wrapping their arms around her and each other, as the hot water sluiced down the drain.